Jonathan Howard’s October 1, 2026 commentary argues that if the BMJ is revisiting institutions accused of misleading the public during the pandemic, it should also scrutinize its own publication of two May 2021 opinion pieces about vaccinating children against COVID-19. His article is a polemical critique of the BMJ’s editorial judgment—not a formal investigation, a clinical guideline, or a finding that settles the scientific questions.
What Howard is asking the BMJ to examine
Howard’s argument is about editorial accountability. He says the BMJ should look back at how it published and framed two opinion pieces on childhood COVID-19 vaccination, rather than applying scrutiny only to other institutions. His closing appeal is explicit: “However, if the BMJ wants to once again revisit venerable institutions that misled the public in 2021, they should look inwards at the BMJ.” (Howard, Science-Based Medicine, October 1, 2026.)
Words such as “misled” and “fact-free” are Howard’s judgments. They should not be read as conclusions of a formal BMJ review or as independently established findings. The original BMJ texts show what their authors argued; Howard’s article offers a critical interpretation of those arguments.
The two BMJ pieces made different arguments
The May 7 article focused on emergency authorization
Wesley Pegden, Vinay Prasad, and Stefan Baral argued that emergency use authorization for mass vaccination of children required a different benefit-risk assessment from vaccination of adults. Howard criticizes their piece for minimizing vaccination’s benefits and leaving out relevant context; he calls it “fact-free.” That label is his assessment, not a neutral description established simply by the publication record. (Pegden, Prasad, and Baral, BMJ, May 7, 2021.)
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The May 13 article considered vaccination’s population-level role
Jennie S. Lavine, Ottar Bjornstad, and Rustom Antia discussed whether childhood vaccination might be needed to halt the pandemic under a particular scenario. Their reasoning depended on childhood infections and adult re-exposures continuing to be typically mild. They wrote: “Should childhood infection (and re-exposures in adults) continue to be typically mild, childhood vaccination will not be necessary to halt the pandemic.” They also argued that, under that scenario, continued viral circulation might be desirable. These were conditional arguments and predictions, not statements of unconditional certainty or a record of settled outcomes. (Lavine, Bjornstad, and Antia, BMJ, May 13, 2021.)
What the 2021 chronology does—and does not—show
A cited report of the adolescent BNT162b2 trial says the FDA expanded emergency use authorization to people aged 12 and older on May 10, 2021; the report appeared on May 27. That sequence places the May 7 BMJ opinion before the authorization for ages 12 and older and the May 13 opinion after it but before the trial report’s publication. (Adolescent BNT162b2 trial report, published May 27, 2021.)
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This chronology is limited to adolescent evidence and authorization at that time. It does not by itself settle the wider policy debate, establish that every criticism Howard makes is correct, or provide current vaccine advice. The arguments also addressed distinct questions: whether to authorize mass vaccination of children, and what role childhood vaccination might play in reducing pandemic circulation under specified assumptions.
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How to read Howard’s criticism
- Separate the authors and claims. The May 7 piece addressed the benefit-risk question around emergency authorization; the May 13 piece offered conditional reasoning about disease severity, immunity, and viral circulation.
- Keep assumptions attached to predictions. The May 13 article’s conclusion depended on infections and adult re-exposures remaining typically mild.
- Distinguish commentary from evidence. Howard’s terms “fact-free” and “misled” express his critique. They are not, on the information cited here, the result of a formal institutional investigation.
- Do not turn a 2021 debate into current guidance. The adolescent authorization chronology is specific to people aged 12 and older in the United States in May 2021; current recommendations depend on jurisdiction and population.
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